RTI Seeks Practices to Participate in Alternative Payment Project

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)-sponsored Developing Outpatient Therapy Payment Alternatives (DOTPA) project is under way. Research Triangle Institute (RTI), which was selected by CMS to conduct the DOTPA project, is recruiting practices for participation. The goal of the project is to develop alternatives to the current payment system that places caps on annual Medicare therapy payments. Over the past 2 years, RTI developed assessment instruments to collect data on clinical characteristics, including measures of functional status not otherwise available from claims, for Medicare Part B outpatient therapy patients. The assessment instruments can be viewed on the DOTPA project Web site.

RTI plans to collect data on approximately 30,000 patients from 190 therapy providers representing all therapy disciplines and all types of treatment settings. Each participating provider will be asked to collect data on 150 patients over a 6-month period. The data collected will include patient assessments at admission and discharge for Medicare Part B beneficiaries. The assessment includes patient- and clinician-reported items. To reduce the administrative burden of data collection, participating providers may defer requests for documentation related to Medicare Administrative Contractor and Recovery Audit Contractor reviews during the DOTPA data collection period.

RTI has begun to send informational mailings to a statistical sample of practices, inviting providers to participate in the project. RTI also welcomes inquiries from practices that are interested in finding out whether they are eligible to participate. Contact Brieanne Lyda-McDonald, DOTPA project manager, at 919/541-6695 or blmcdonald@rti.org to schedule a time to discuss the project. You also can visit the project Web site to find out more.